Stalk Her

Chapter 1: A Call From Lily

"I don't know what your problem is—it's on sale! You might as well buy it!" Autumn waved a hand and rolled her eyes at the uptight middle-aged woman before her.

The woman's eyes widened at Autumn's attempt to sell her the sweater with a large coffee stain in the middle of it. "Excuse me?"

Autumn shrugged. "Seriously, it's like eighty percent cheaper than it used to be. If I were you—"

"If I were your boss I'd fire you—who made you the salesperson for this area?"

Autumn shrugged. "Whatever lady, I'll just give my girlfriend a call and tell her—"

The woman slammed the shirt on the counter and gapped at Autumn. "Where is your manager?!"

"He's out to lunch. Sorry. But I can send him a text for you." Autumn smiled robotically and emphasized the pronouns of her boss.

The woman seemed as though her head was going to explode. "Forget this! Even going to the thrift shop across the street is a better bet than this shitty service!"

Autumn pulled out her phone and began to browse social media, getting a shocked expression from the customer. Autumn kept her tone casual. "You know what they say about thrift store clothes—you never know what peed on it or if it has bed bugs or who had sex in it last."

The woman turned swiftly from Autumn and marched out of the store with her shoulders high and her head even higher.

Autumn smirked. "That's what you get your self-righteous homophobic prick." Autumn slipped her phone in her back pocket.

"Oh my god!" Matt came forward with his hand on his heart. "How did you get rid of her?"

Autumn smiled. "She won't be coming back here any time soon that's for sure." Autumn picked up the shirt with the large coffee stain and began to wonder if she could pretend it had been an accident...when it most definitely had been her and on purpose.

Matthew clapped his hands in a flamboyant manner above his head. "I don't know how you do it girl. If I had half the balls you do, I would have told that woman off the other day when she reminded me that I'm the reason this country's going down the drain."

Autmun laughed. "It's people like her that are draining this country!"

"Miss Powell," said a low voice that startled her.

"My god Clark! What the fuck? Can't you make some noise with your footsteps next time?"

"Boss wants to see you." He said in a dead tone and then left to continue on his job of restocking the shoe shelves.

"Pfft. I'm sure she does." Autumn rolled her eyes. "If that girl bitches at me one more time, I swear I'm going to quit."

"You can't quit," Matthew gasped. "Lara would never allow it."

Autumn smirked. "I wish she would."

*****

"You're firing me?" Autumn stood from her chair suddenly. "But—why?"

"You know very well why I'm firing you! You need to stop being disrespectful towards customers and then being surprised when they give us a bad review!" Lara, Autumns boss slammed a hand on the table to make her point.

"This is ridiculous! I don't have to put up with this shit." Autumn stood.

Lara stood as well. "That's exactly what your problem is! You're the one creating the problems!"

Autumn threw her arms in the air. "But you should have seen how she treated Mathew! She totally bullied him for being gay! She asked for someone else to check her out because she was offended by him—What did you expect me to do? Smile, give her the percent off and send her on her way?"

"YES!"

Autumn paused for a brief moment, surprised by her boss's immediate and obvious sounding reaction. Then Autumn glared and picked her tone back up. "Well—I can't! okay? I can't and I won't—you know what, if that's the standard here, then I quit!"

Lara sat back in her seat and sighed loudly. "My God Autumn—you're my best worker, but you're the worst to some of our best customers. If only I could instill the manners of Clark and the work ethic of you, I would have the best workers."

"No, you'd have a robot man who works really hard! Clark is the worst with people, I think he has autism or something." Autumn thought about it for a moment.

Lara shook her head and sighed. "And you're the one standing against discrimination."

"It's not discrimination if it's a fact!"

Lara raise an eyebrow.

"Get off my case okay, you're already firing me! What more do you want? My blood donation or something."

"Autumn, listen—" Lara sounded like she was attempting to calm herself in order to bring some sense into the emotion filled room.

"Forget it, I've got to get busy finding another job—without a cover letter I'm sure." Autumn shouted as she gripped the handle of the door.

Lara's voice was like a low wolf's growl. "It's called a Reference Letter and if you'd hold your horses I'd write one for you." Lard shouted back.

"Whatever!" Autumn opened the door and swung around with her head held high. "It, I don't need your pity!" She made sure to slam it shut as hard as she could, causing the blinds to fall to the floor.

"Autumn!" Lara yelled from the other side of the door.

"What happened?" Matthew asked as he followed after Autumn.

"I'm so done here!" Autumn grabbed her coat and fumbled with her locker combination. "I work my ass off everyday for this stupid clothing store in this stupid mall and do I get thanked for it? No! I get fired."

Matthew gasped and clasped his hands over his mouth. "Oh my god! She fired you! But she can't do that!"

"It's done! So forget about it!" She opened her locker and just as she did, her phone range from within her large bag. She picked it up her ancient flip phone and flipped it open and answered while practically yelling. "Yeah—what?"

There was a long pause and all Autumn could hear was her own heartbeat which was filled with annoyance and anger. Whoever was on the other side wasn't talking.

Autumn grunted and then sounded annoyed. "George? Is this you?"

"Umm...is this, Autumn?" asked a tiny voice on the other side.

"Yeah, who's asking? The fucking FBI?" Autumn put a hand on her hip.

There was another pause and then the voice seemed to quicken slightly. "Um—no...uh, this is Lily...your cousin."

Autumn froze and her angry face softened instantly. "Lily? Oh my god Lily—I'm so sorry!" her voice completely changed as a smile came across her face, as though she hadn't been completely angry and upset a moment ago. "How have you been? I haven't heard from you in forever! How's Pittsburgh?"

Matthew watched Autumn with confusion and an explanation of who she was talking to, but she was ignoring him.

There was another pause and Autumn thought she heard Lily sniffle on the other end. "Um...I'm not in Pittsburgh, actually I'm here...in Chicago..."